Emor

The commentators ask why does “Kedoshim” and “Emor” being read one after another? And they answer: since God gave Israel the directions how to become sanctified in everything he gave directions also to the priests (Cohanim).

As we recall, the main paragraph in Kedoshim was “love your fellow person as yourself” and its purpose was to teach us how to bring sanctity into our lives, since we were born to be Creators. When we say “sanctified” we mean that we need to take whatever we would like to experience and to re-create it in a way that it, the action or words, will connect with the Light of Creation.

When we love our fellow man, in spite of what he has done or said, just because we know that this love connects us to the Creator and actually makes us partner in His creation, then we become sanctified and then we can achieve whatever we wish.

Emor is always being read during the counting of the Omer, which is a time of purification. Hence, whoever is doing spiritual work at this time is experiencing more difficulties than usual, since this time is presenting us with more opportunities for spiritual work.

The Parasha is mostly dealing with the priests. However, since the temple is not available to us, we should function as priests in our surroundings. Our home is a temple and our table is an altar. When we start to act this way this is when we actually take responsibility for our lives. This is when we get the power to control what comes in and what will stay outside – this is real power.